Report: Hornets close to hiring Mitch Kupchak as president, general manager

The Hornets reportedly offered their general-manager job to Mitch Kupchak.

Unsurprisingly, the man whose last major moves were signing Luol Deng (four years, $72 million), Timofey Mozgov (four years, $64 million) and Jordan Clarkson (four years, $50 million) hasn’t found a better offer elsewhere.

Somewhat surprisingly, Kupchak is apparently getting a loftier title than he had with the Lakers.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:

The Charlotte Hornets have made significant progress in contract talks with Mitch Kupchak to become president of basketball operations and general manager, and a formal agreement is expected to be reached soon, league sources told ESPN.

Kupchak will keep assistant general manager Buzz Peterson in a front-office role, and Kupchak ultimately will add his own personnel changes to the team’s management and scouting structure, league sources said.

All along, Kupchak was expected to keep Peterson. Hornets owner Michael Jordan, Kupchak and Peterson all played at North Carolina. This is yet another indicator Jordan overvalued the Tar Heel connection when choosing Kupchak.

Maybe Kupchak is up for the daunting task in Charlotte. He built multiple Lakers title teams. But if he hadn’t gone to North Carolina, would Jordan have hired him? Will Kupchak’s college choice make him any better in this role than if he played at, say, Kansas?

It won’t matter now. The Hornets are full steam ahead with Kupchak.